Apple releases iOS 7.1.1 with further Touch ID, keyboard improvements

First update since iOS 7.1 includes a handful of minor fixes.

Apple has just posted iOS 7.1.1, the first minor update to iOS 7.1 following its release in March. As usual with these small updates, it fixes just a few minor problems—there are further improvements to the Touch ID fingerprint recognition in the iPhone 5S. It "fixes a bug that could impact keyboard responsiveness" and another bug affecting Bluetooth keyboard usage while the VoiceOver feature is enabled.

Further Reading

The Touch ID fingerprint sensor was also a focus area for iOS 7.1.1; the update aims to address complaints that the sensor was inaccurate or that it "faded" over time. Current rumors suggest that Apple would like to include the feature in iPads and other products in the future, which only makes sense—features like Siri likewise showed up in the iPhone first and then propagated to other iOS devices later.

iOS 7.1.1 applies to every device supported by iOS 7.1: the iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, and 5S; the iPad 2, both Retina iPads, both iPad minis, and the iPad Air; and the fifth-generation iPod touch.

Yeah, I just hit a letter now and see if it is capital or not. If I need to fix it I backspace over and tap shift. Maybe I'll get used to it eventually, but man is it non-obvious to new users of that OS version what state the shift key is in.

When I read "keyboard improvements", I hoped that they had changed the color of the onscreen Shift key. I am disappointed.

Yeah, the colour is reversed. What's with that? I always get it wrong now. Very annoying. Was this introduced in 7.0? Looks like a bug to me.

They changed it between 7.0 and 7.1, more if you count how many times it changed in the 7.1 betas. Seems like they know it's not ideal but can't figure out how to fix it.

I know how to fix it. Hitting shift would actually change all the keys on the keyboard to upper case. Like Android. I wonder if there's a patent preventing them from doing that? It sure seems like the superior solution to me.

When I read "keyboard improvements", I hoped that they had changed the color of the onscreen Shift key. I am disappointed.

Yeah, the colour is reversed. What's with that? I always get it wrong now. Very annoying. Was this introduced in 7.0? Looks like a bug to me.

They changed it between 7.0 and 7.1, more if you count how many times it changed in the 7.1 betas. Seems like they know it's not ideal but can't figure out how to fix it.

I know how to fix it. Hitting shift would actually change all the keys on the keyboard to upper case. Like Android. I wonder if there's a patent preventing them from doing that? It sure seems like the superior solution to me.

Ugh, not that. Too distracting to have keys flashing. Why not just change the shading so shift can be "up" or "down"? Caps lock sticks it in down.

The shift key in the lower-case position makes sense if you compare it to the backspace key (white on grey). When it's in the capital position, it's black on white, like the rest of the letters (that are all capitalized).

It makes sense at least, but it could use definitely use to be more obvious.

Shift key solution: Change the icon. Maybe use the underscored arrow that currently means capslock for a regular shift, and do a double line for locked? Not sure why color has to be the only indicator.

When I read "keyboard improvements", I hoped that they had changed the color of the onscreen Shift key. I am disappointed.

Yeah, the colour is reversed. What's with that? I always get it wrong now. Very annoying. Was this introduced in 7.0? Looks like a bug to me.

They changed it between 7.0 and 7.1, more if you count how many times it changed in the 7.1 betas. Seems like they know it's not ideal but can't figure out how to fix it.

I know how to fix it. Hitting shift would actually change all the keys on the keyboard to upper case. Like Android. I wonder if there's a patent preventing them from doing that? It sure seems like the superior solution to me.

Ugh, not that. Too distracting to have keys flashing. Why not just change the shading so shift can be "up" or "down"? Caps lock sticks it in down.

I suppose I could be satisfied if only the shift key changed.shift <- normal stateShift <-shift stateSHIFT <- capslock state

When I read "keyboard improvements", I hoped that they had changed the color of the onscreen Shift key. I am disappointed.

Yeah, the colour is reversed. What's with that? I always get it wrong now. Very annoying. Was this introduced in 7.0? Looks like a bug to me.

They changed it between 7.0 and 7.1, more if you count how many times it changed in the 7.1 betas. Seems like they know it's not ideal but can't figure out how to fix it.

I know how to fix it. Hitting shift would actually change all the keys on the keyboard to upper case. Like Android. I wonder if there's a patent preventing them from doing that? It sure seems like the superior solution to me.

Yeah, I just hit a letter now and see if it is capital or not. If I need to fix it I backspace over and tap shift. Maybe I'll get used to it eventually, but man is it non-obvious to new users of that OS version what state the shift key is in.

One of the very few things I missed about jailbreaking was the tweak to make the letters capitalized when starting a new sentence, then they all went back to lowercase. Such an obvious and useful behavior that Apple really should implement.

Yeah, I just hit a letter now and see if it is capital or not. If I need to fix it I backspace over and tap shift. Maybe I'll get used to it eventually, but man is it non-obvious to new users of that OS version what state the shift key is in.

One of the very few things I missed about jailbreaking was the tweak to make the letters capitalized when starting a new sentence, then they all went back to lowercase. Such an obvious and useful behavior that Apple really should implement.

Hasn't iOS done this forever? Put a period and a space and it automatically shifts the next character.

But is it really an improvement in how accurate and secure it really is? Their last 'improvement' was 100% Appleesque. They merely changed how the service is perceived by the users. They took out the "try again" message when the fingerprint scanner fails, and made it so it silently retries a few times until it succeeds. The accuracy of the scanner is about 40% before and after the update. It's just that now users aren't informed when it fails. ALL FIX'D!

Apple do pretty good work. But I really wish they'd stop with smoke and mirrors tactics. It makes me think less of them, not more.

The last update definitely improved readings for me. My main finger on my dominant hand went from about <10% success (pretty well never worked) to >95% while maintaining >95% on the left hand and vastly improving the fade (don't see any more of that). Makes Touch ID indispensable to me and actually potentially useful for uses such as mobile payment. Before, never.

Most days I'm happy in safe apple-curated iOS world. I know there's plenty of better reasons to be annoyed with Apple design decisions, but for me, forcing the 'Require Passcode' unlock setting to 'Immediately' when I turn on the fingerprint unlocking -- that one just drives me batty.

When I read "keyboard improvements", I hoped that they had changed the color of the onscreen Shift key. I am disappointed.

Yeah, the colour is reversed. What's with that? I always get it wrong now. Very annoying. Was this introduced in 7.0? Looks like a bug to me.

They changed it between 7.0 and 7.1, more if you count how many times it changed in the 7.1 betas. Seems like they know it's not ideal but can't figure out how to fix it.

I know how to fix it. Hitting shift would actually change all the keys on the keyboard to upper case. Like Android. I wonder if there's a patent preventing them from doing that? It sure seems like the superior solution to me.

Ugh, not that. Too distracting to have keys flashing. Why not just change the shading so shift can be "up" or "down"? Caps lock sticks it in down.

There most likely is a patent on flashing the uppercase letters when shift is pressed.

Also, apple just spent all this time flattening out their ui--shading is out of the question too.

This may sound crazy, but what if the arrow was down for lowercase, and up for uppercase?

When I read "keyboard improvements", I hoped that they had changed the color of the onscreen Shift key. I am disappointed.

Yeah, the colour is reversed. What's with that? I always get it wrong now. Very annoying. Was this introduced in 7.0? Looks like a bug to me.

They changed it between 7.0 and 7.1, more if you count how many times it changed in the 7.1 betas. Seems like they know it's not ideal but can't figure out how to fix it.

it wasn't an issue until 7. whatever it was before I always understood.

I have no problem with the shift key in iOS 7.1. And neither does my wife who is not a computer expert.

On my iPhone keyboard when the Shift key is the same color as the backspace key (White arrow) that means it is a lowercase letter. When the shift key has a black arrow, then it means it will type a capital letter.

This is an example where even very technically accomplished users can be tripped up by basic interface items.In my years of computer support with graphical user interfaces, sometimes a novice user (including a computer class that I taught in elementary school) would immediately understand how to use a GUI item.But a person who used command lines all day at the office would be tripped up when they had to use a certain icon.

But is it really an improvement in how accurate and secure it really is? Their last 'improvement' was 100% Appleesque. They merely changed how the service is perceived by the users. They took out the "try again" message when the fingerprint scanner fails, and made it so it silently retries a few times until it succeeds. The accuracy of the scanner is about 40% before and after the update. It's just that now users aren't informed when it fails. ALL FIX'D!

Apple do pretty good work. But I really wish they'd stop with smoke and mirrors tactics. It makes me think less of them, not more.

FWIW, I had terrible trouble with Touch ID fade until I trained myself to not switch fingers after one wasn't recognized. I had been trying right thumb twice, and then giving up and using left forefinger (also enrolled). I suspect that, when that worked, the left forefinger data was "refined" using the previous failed thumb attempts... actually making it worse. That's my theory, anyway.

When I read "keyboard improvements", I hoped that they had changed the color of the onscreen Shift key. I am disappointed.

Yeah, the colour is reversed. What's with that? I always get it wrong now. Very annoying. Was this introduced in 7.0? Looks like a bug to me.

They changed it between 7.0 and 7.1, more if you count how many times it changed in the 7.1 betas. Seems like they know it's not ideal but can't figure out how to fix it.

I know how to fix it. Hitting shift would actually change all the keys on the keyboard to upper case. Like Android. I wonder if there's a patent preventing them from doing that? It sure seems like the superior solution to me.

This is much more than "minor fixes", iOS 7.1.1 fixes a lot of critical security vulnerabilities (as does the new OS X update):

Quote:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----Hash: SHA1

APPLE-SA-2014-04-22-2 iOS 7.1.1

iOS 7.1.1 is now available and addresses the following:

CFNetwork HTTPProtocolAvailable for: iPhone 4 and later,iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and laterImpact: An attacker in a privileged network position can obtain website credentialsDescription: Set-Cookie HTTP headers would be processed even if theconnection closed before the header line was complete. An attackercould strip security settings from the cookie by forcing theconnection to close before the security settings were sent, and thenobtain the value of the unprotected cookie. This issue was addressedby ignoring incomplete HTTP header lines.CVE-IDCVE-2014-1296 : Antoine Delignat-Lavaud of Prosecco at Inria Paris

IOKit KernelAvailable for: iPhone 4 and later,iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and laterImpact: A local user can read kernel pointers, which can be used tobypass kernel address space layout randomizationDescription: A set of kernel pointers stored in an IOKit objectcould be retrieved from userland. This issue was addressed throughremoving the pointers from the object.CVE-IDCVE-2014-1320 : Ian Beer of Google Project Zero working with HP'sZero Day Initiative

Security - Secure TransportAvailable for: iPhone 4 and later,iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and laterImpact: An attacker with a privileged network position may capturedata or change the operations performed in sessions protected by SSLDescription: In a 'triple handshake' attack, it was possible for anattacker to establish two connections which had the same encryptionkeys and handshake, insert the attacker's data in one connection, andrenegotiate so that the connections may be forwarded to each other.To prevent attacks based on this scenario, Secure Transport waschanged so that, by default, a renegotiation must present the sameserver certificate as was presented in the original connection.CVE-IDCVE-2014-1295 : Antoine Delignat-Lavaud, Karthikeyan Bhargavan andAlfredo Pironti of Prosecco at Inria Paris

This update is available through iTunes and Software Update on youriOS device, and will not appear in your computer's Software Updateapplication, or in the Apple Downloads site. Make sure you have anInternet connection and have installed the latest version of iTunesfrom http://www.apple.com/itunes/

iTunes and Software Update on the device will automatically checkApple's update server on its weekly schedule. When an update isdetected, it is downloaded and the option to be installed ispresented to the user when the iOS device is docked. We recommendapplying the update immediately if possible. Selecting Don't Installwill present the option the next time you connect your iOS device.

The automatic update process may take up to a week depending on theday that iTunes or the device checks for updates. You may manuallyobtain the update via the Check for Updates button within iTunes, orthe Software Update on your device.

To check that the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad has been updated:

* Navigate to Settings* Select General* Select About. The version after applying this updatewill be "7.1.1".

When I read "keyboard improvements", I hoped that they had changed the color of the onscreen Shift key. I am disappointed.

Yeah, the colour is reversed. What's with that? I always get it wrong now. Very annoying. Was this introduced in 7.0? Looks like a bug to me.

They changed it between 7.0 and 7.1, more if you count how many times it changed in the 7.1 betas. Seems like they know it's not ideal but can't figure out how to fix it.

I know how to fix it. Hitting shift would actually change all the keys on the keyboard to upper case. Like Android. I wonder if there's a patent preventing them from doing that? It sure seems like the superior solution to me.

The trouble with this is that it makes the whole keyboard and all the keys change its visual appearance. I hate that in Android. Probably it isn't so bad with English but in German (where you use lots of capital letters) the constantly flashing keyboard under your fingers is incredibly annoying. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! I always need to look twice whenever I hit the shift key every third word or so. You want to type something, hit the shift key before a typing a word and WHAM! the whole keyboard warps. It's like getting a slap on the back of your head five times every sentence.

But I agree that the "old" way of indicating the shift key (with a color) was much better and much easier to see. Especially since iOS now has a dark and a bright keyboard, so that a key turning bright or dark is meaningless at first sight, you have actually to interpret if first. Apple has totally failed here, really. Would be interesting to know if they actually do some quantified testing here. I doubt that, because if they had, they would have noticed that.

Ugh, not that. Too distracting to have keys flashing. Why not just change the shading so shift can be "up" or "down"? Caps lock sticks it in down.

Well, it'd be distracting if they did it arbitrarily, but seeing as you make a mode-shift input, and the result is a mode-shift on the UI, it should not be distracting unless it is delayed.

Are you distracted when you switch to the symbol/number keyboard?

The number/symbol keyboard is a clear context change. Capitalizing a word isn't. Your finger already is on the way to some letter and all keys change just because you hit the shift key. Happens not that often in English, but in other languages (like German) all the time. The keyboard would have flashed more then 20 times in these sentences if it would have been in German, this really is utterly annoying in Android.

I just thought: With the green color now in enabled on/off buttons all over iOS why didn't they make the shift key green when it is on? This would be totally in-your-face and still consistent with the UI elsewhere.

I hope iOS 7.1.1 fixes the lock screen fubared problem I've had at least once a week since 7.1 came out.

There are times when I go to unlock my iPhone and the lock screen keypad appears. For whatever reason, I can't type my code because the screen doesn't register my touches. Then it locks and goes dark again. When you try to unlock it again, you get the "slide to unlock" screen but you can't slide it because something thinks that the keypad screen is already open, so you're just fucked. The only recovery I've found is to hard reset the phone. Freaking irritating.